I’m not yet saying Sprint has turned the corner, but what we know for sure is that after talks to merge with
T-Mobile US fell apart over the weekend, the company is moving forward as a standalone entity and said Tuesday, 7 November 2017, that it would increase spending on its network. In fact, according to Sprint Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati, the merger had little to do with this capex hike; rather, it’s coming from the Altice partnership, which would have happened anyway. Announced Sunday, 5 November 2017, US cable operator Altice USA will sell mobile service on Sprint’s network under a new multi-year agreement. Now the high expectation has clearly shifted overnight from a failed merger to the Altice partnership, which is suddenly putting pressure on Sprint to install new antennas as soon as possible. As a result, Sprint plans to raise money to fund its network investment by avoiding expensive traditional debt and using its airwave licenses as collateral. Clients, please log in to read the full content.

US-based mobile games developer Niantic has partnered with Warner Bros to develop a new game based on the Harry Potter brand. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is set to launch in 2018 and will incorporate augmented reality (AR) features into the game.

Vodafone UK and CityFibre have signed an agreement to deploy a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) network to up to 5 million UK premises by 2025, representing the biggest commitment to FTTP technology seen in the UK to date.

A day after the announcement that merger talks between Sprint and T-Mobile US have ended, Altice USA has announced an MVNO agreement with Sprint. The US cable operator will use Sprint’s network to provide mobile voice and data services. In return, Altice has allowed Sprint to access its cable network infrastructure. This will aid Sprint’s network densification process, helping the mobile operator deploy small cells throughout the US.

Uber partnered with Barclays and Visa to launch Uber Visa Card. In addition to increasing incentive offerings and enhancing the payment experience, Uber also aims to access customer information and data to expand its role in online and offline commerce.

As usual this time of the year, I chaired KNect365’s Self-Organising Networks World, which was rebranded last year. Held in London where it started in 2010, this eighth annual SON conference was well attended with more than 120 delegates, which is about the same number as last year but a different crowd that reflects another interesting vendor dynamic. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

KPN has won an appeal at the EU general court relating to the European Commission’s (EC) approval of the 2014 acquisition by Liberty Global’s UPC of Ziggo. The appeal was granted on the basis that the European Commission had failed to analyse the market for sports rights and the impact of the merger on the pay TV sports market.

It was the most highly anticipated smartphone announcement of the year when Apple revealed the iPhone X to the world at their special event in September celebrating the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone at their brand new campus in Cupertino, California. The edge-to-edge screen and button-less fascia design sets the iPhone X from any other iPhone released before it. Apple completely did away with their signature TouchID home button in favor of a more technologically secure bio-metric using facial recognition dubbed FaceID – an industry first. Coupled with new AI tuned application processor, Bionic A11, and dual camera design borrowed from the iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X was intended to set the new standard of iPhone design going forward in the next decade.

This morning, Cisco announced its intent to acquire BroadSoft for $55 per share cash for a total valuation of approximately $1.9B. It’s a poorly held secret that BroadSoft was looking for an acquirer, and last week it became clearer that Cisco was at the top of the list. BroadSoft will become part of Cisco’s UC business under GM Tom Puorro, under the Applications Group led by Rowan Trollope. The deal is expected to close in calendar Q1 2018. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

The Axon M is ZTE’s latest device in its flagship line of devices under the Axon brand. The phone features two screens, which can be combined to form one larger screen. In the US, the phone will be an AT&T exclusive. The phone will cost about $725.

The Mate 10 Pro jumps ahead of the competition, including traditional LTE chipset performance leader Qualcomm, by becoming the first smartphone to be announced with a category 18 LTE modem and RF design, which has been made possible by Huawei’s ongoing investment in its HiSilicon chipsets. The Mate 10 range demonstrates Huawei’s scale and its ability to invest in significant strategic smartphone technologies that smaller OEMs cannot match.

This insight article (second of two part series) analyzes Apple’s external and internal environment that contributed to a patent war against Qualcomm and the potential impact the patent war can have on the smartphone industry.

Since its invention by Corning Glass researchers Robert Maurer, Donald Keck, and Peter Schultz in 1970, it was clear that optical fiber would eventually become the nerve of telecommunications networks. The fiber-optic cable race started in the 80s for long distance transatlantic communications systems and moved to long haul terrestrial links in the late 90s during the Internet bubble. The run up ended in March 2000 with a fiber glut that marked the beginning of the great telecom crash. Since then, the fiber-optic business has become very cyclical with significant ups and downs and is now sustained by Google and Facebook building their own undersea and terrestrial fiber-optic networks to link data centers, as well as China, which spent $182B between 2015 and 2017 to build its own network. Now with 5G on the horizon, all service providers and governments are looking for fiber. Clients, please log in to view the full content.

Broadcom has released the BCM47755 dual frequency GNSS receiver for smartphones, tablets and wearable devices. The chip promises higher location accuracy combined with lower power consumption. If the company’s claims can be validated in real-world usage and Broadcom can gain design wins with hardware makers, contextually aware mobile user experiences will improve significantly.